useEnsuredForwardedRef

A React hook that safely handles forwarded refs to ensure consistent reference management.

This hook addresses a specific challenge when working with forwarded refs in React components: When you need to access a ref both internally and externally in a component hierarchy. While React.forwardRef allows passing refs to child components (typically to expose internal HTML elements to parent components), complications arise when you need to manipulate that reference within the child component's lifecycle hooks.

The main challenge is that you cannot guarantee that a parent component will always provide a ref, which can lead to undefined references. This hook ensures you always have a valid reference to work with, regardless of whether the parent component provides one.

API

function useEnsuredForwardedRef<T>(forwardedRef: ForwardedRef<T>): MutableRefObject<T | null>

Usage

 // Parent component
 const ParentComponent = () => {
   const buttonRef = useRef<HTMLButtonElement>(null);
   return <ChildComponent ref={buttonRef} />;
 };

 // Child component
 const ChildComponent = forwardRef<HTMLButtonElement>((props, ref) => {
   const ensuredRef = useEnsuredForwardedRef(ref);

   useEffect(() => {
     // Safe to use ensuredRef.current here
     // Even if parent didn't provide a ref
     if (ensuredRef.current) {
       ensuredRef.current.focus();
     }
   }, []);

   return <button ref={ensuredRef}>Click me</button>;
 });